A commenter has recently let us know of a few translation efforts we weren’t aware of, so we’d like to say here that suggestions for extra things to include, whether they’re new translations, blog posts or podcasts, are always gratefully received! Our feed-readers won’t catch everything, and unfortunately we can’t go to some kind of resource which would capture all of what we’d want to cover, because that’s what we’re trying to be in the first place… So the best way to proceed seems to be to gather leads constantly, and hope that we’re casting our nets more and more widely as time goes on.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

The anime writer Yuu Yamamoto passed away at the end of November, and Land of Obscusion has a detailed article covering his career. Inasmuch as Yamamoto was known in the English-speaking world, he was probably known for writing the scripts for about a quarter of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. But he had a very active career in the 1970s and 80s, and in the latter decade he made his mark helping to create and write a slew of more free-wheeling mecha anime, including Acrobunch and the ‘J9’ trilogy: Braiger, Baxinger and Sasuraiger. Braiger is a real favourite of mine. I love its strange heist plots, flippant tone, funky soundtrack and famous opening. As George explains, in recent years Yamamoto had been trying to get a potential J9 revival off the ground; sadly, his departure probably casts more doubt on that project, but we can remember him as someone committed to making interesting anime to the end. This one’s a big loss. I remember when the J9 revival was announced years ago; it’s a damn shame it may never see the light of day.

Motoko Tamamuro offers an entertaining synopsis of Let’s Talk About the Ghibli No One Talks About, a book by (ahem) Mamoru Oshii which in her account mixes grudging admiration and outspoken assessments:

Hayao Miyazaki ‘cannot direct’—he is ‘less than second-rate as a director.’ ‘There is no coherent clear story’. ‘Mood’ and ‘ideas’ dictate his films and ‘there is no logic’. Meanwhile, Isao Takahata turned into a ‘shit intellect’ who created ‘propaganda films.’

In a post for Atelier Emily, Emily describes how her view of one Sailor Moon character has shifted since her childhood. Having properly watched Sailor Moon a few years ago, I can agree with much of Emily’s assessment. I view Usagi and Rei as having a dynamic that plays off their intertwining natures.

At blautoothdmand, you can find some new appreciations of older and relatively obscure shorts: Kouji Morimoto’s music video for Extra (1996), and Kikumana, an early (2001) work from Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Time of Eve, Patema Inverted).

The Great OAV Watch continues with posts on Area 88 (1985), which I should really re-watch, and Roots Search (1986).

B0bduh’s travels through quality magical girl anime at Wrong Every Time also continue, in posts on Ojamajo Doremi episodes 41 and 42, and Princess Tutu episode 18.

Ryousuke Takahashi, director of Dougram, Votoms, Flag &c and general industry stalwart, has what sounds like a professional autobiography due out in February (in Japanese, and don’t necessarily expect it to get translated!). Thanks to Brian Ruh for pointing this out. I hope someone reads through it and details some interesting facts.

Twitter user @buildknuckle recently organised a group watch of the legendary Takahata anime adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (1979). One result which might be of use to anyone interested is a complete English-translated list of per-episode credits for episode direction, scripts, storyboarding and key animation, which you can find here.

Podcasting

Zannen, Canada has a fascinating new episode on the afterlife of UFO Robo Grendizer (1975—the third of the original three Mazinger TV anime) in Francophone Canada.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — Most of my free time has been occupied by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s a real blast!

Thaliarchus — The coming week’s my last in my current job, so I’ve been busy with various completing-and-finishing tasks. One took me to London last Tuesday to consult some manuscripts in the British Library (an institution which people in my profession cheerfully and confusingly call ‘the BL’). Fellow old-anime-liker Niall Flanagan kindly spared some time to lunch with me while I was there, so here’s a shout-out to him! Anime-wise, I’ve reached the halfway point in Gun x Sword. The show manages a decent mid-series climax, with the direction and script noticeably improved for a couple of episodes. So that’s been nice! I’m still looking forward to letting my SRW T preparations take me on to watch more Captain Harlock, though.

I’ll leave you with this blog post from bateszi articulating an attitude to watching anime which I largely share.

And we’re back! As if to make up for thinner pickings in our last post, the past fortnight has produced rather more attention to older anime. Truly our cup runneth over.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Washi has an extensive new post about the creation and legacy of Hakujaden (1958), the feature film which was Toei’s first major production and an important point of origin for the anime industry. Hakujaden‘s a title which usefully demonstrates the difference between a predecessor and a progenitor: interesting and substantial animation had been created in Japan much earlier, and animators had been doing marginal TV work (for adverts, for instance) in the years before, but there’s an organic link to pretty much all commercial anime today which goes back to this film and no further. Washi’s post explains the film’s genesis and the competing philosophies of animation which can be found in its scenes (check out the fantastic background art!).

Zimmerit is making a bit of a habit of bringing rare production materials to light. This time it’s the first pitch document for the TV show concept which would eventually become the OVA Megazone 23 (1985–89). Megazone 23 was made quite early in the history of videotape as a viable first release format for anime, and the decision to produce it as an OVA wasn’t as obvious at the time as it might’ve been just one or two years later, so this is a fascinating document. I’m amused to see that some of the rhetorical positioning designed to separate it from similar works—’Here’s what’s different about this one’ statements—isn’t far off from academic grant writing. The shamelessly overt commercial motivation (‘Endlessly Expanding Toy Opportunities’!) is fun, too. I love learning about the production process and conceptualization of classic anime. The OVA boom of the 1980s is also a peculiar thing to think about. What if the format hadn’t taken off? It’s really interesting to explore the risk-taking directors and studios took back then.

The latest piece from Let’s Anime is a survey of the remarkable bench strength of anime in 1978. As Dave cheerfully admits, declaring ’78 the Best Ever is mostly a framing device, but he also has a point: there really were a lot of great titles, and in a time when there were far fewer anime in any single year than there are today, too. The 70s had so many great and influential titles, many of which I’ve yet to watch. 1978 did bring us Daimos, an anime I’m still going through but have greatly enjoyed. And of course there’s Tomino’s Daitarn 3, which paved the way to Mobile Suit Gundam a year later.

The indefatigable subbers at Orphan have more releases out, and as usual Collectr’s written helpful primers. Nine: Original-ban (1983) is a partial adaptation of the first original manga by that master of gentle sports romances, Mitsuru Adachi, originally made as a television special and then given a cinema run. Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru (1985) is another TV special, this time using Tezuka’s character Sharaka.

Over at Land of Obscusion, George has a thorough write-up on (take a deep breath now)The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final: Grand Glorious Gathering, a 2005 attempt to combine the 2000–03 OVA GaoGaiGar Final with elements from Betterman (1999) (yes, keeping track of this does give me a headache). Grand Glorious Gathering was not an entirely successful project, but it is nice to have a detailed discussion of it as a curiosity. On a related note, I’m stoked that GaoGaiGar is making a return to Super Robot Wars in its upcoming installment, T. George’s also written a similarly chunky appreciation of 2007’s GR: Giant Robo, the red-headed stepchild among Mitsuteru Yokoyama tribute anime.

Cat Soup has also been getting some attention on VRV’s company block, where Blake writes on its presentation of consumption.

Finally, Feez pulls together what little we know about ‘Turn A Space’, a series concept in some way related to Turn A Gundam which never saw the light of day in any single, unified form. Here’s a fun piece of trivia to muse over: according to Romi Park (Loran’s voice actress), Tomino once told her he’d like to remake Turn A Gundam twenty years later. Turn A celebrates its twentieth broadcast-start anniversary in April of 2019.

Podcasting

Dynamite in the Brain convenes to discussIn the Aftermath (1988), the live-action project which used interspersed footage from Angel’s Egg; and then again to cover Tokyo Movie Shinsha’s output from 1987–95.

Anime Feminist’s podcast has kicked-off a series on Escaflowne (1996) with a discussion of the first six episodes.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — I’ve mostly been playing video games. Recently finished up Ys: Memories of Celceta, which I personally found more enjoyable than the reputation its attained within fandom. I liked the idea of exploring an uncharted forest and learning its mysteries and recovering Adol’s memories. Onwards to Ys VIII next! I’ve also started a replay of Ocarina of Time to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It’s been eighteen years since I’ve last played that game, so I’m enjoying it greatly. Finally, Smash Ultimate drops in a few days and I’m excited!

Thaliarchus — I’ve been watching Gun x Sword in preparation for Super Robot Wars T. I’m about a third of the way through the show now, and enjoying it, although I think I’d hesitate to recommend it to a general audience! Its mid-2000s digital colouring and effects haven’t aged terribly well but it has a very good episode about a retired super robot crew.

We’re back! And we’re a week late: sorry. We’ve had another spell in which both of us have been busy in our respective jobs. But new things have continued to happen in the world of older anime, and we’re still here to chronicle them.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

The first post we’ll highlight this week is about preservation. Collectr has a fascinating new post up explaining the lengths some fans are going to to preserve anime which is only available on rapidly-declining physical formats (most especially, laserdisc). It’s worth noting that Orphan fansubs are currently accepting donations to improve the sophistication of their archiving process. Please reach out in the comments (on Collectr’s post) if you’re interested.

Andrew Osmond has posted a useful introduction to Belladonna of Sadness.

Coverage of Ojamajo Doremi at Wrong Every Time continues with posts on episodes 36, 37 and 38. If I can ever reconcile myself to watching this show it’ll be interesting to go back over these, I reckon. B0bduh has also published the latest dispatch from his journey through Princess Tutu, on episode 17.

Besides writing about the battle to save anime before disc rot gets to them, Collectr has three informative release posts out on the obscurities Boyfriend (1992), Singles (1993) and Izumo (1991). The first two are more chapters in the generally ignored history of one-off shoujo manga adaptations, and the third is a curious historical-fantasy piece. Orphan have also just releasedNightsong of Splendour (KaseiYakyoku; 1989), an adaptation of a josei manga title about romance in high and low life in 1920s Tokyo. From its first episode, it seems to be pretty entertaining. Dezaki directed it, with his usual flair.

We’ll remind you one last time about Catsuka’s month long series of daily production material articles, many pertaining to older anime. The series finished just within the remit of this post, with an entry from Utena.

Finally, Fred Patten, a trailblazing US anime fan and early North American industry figure, recently passed away. We don’t normally cover North American old anime news, for much the same reasons that we don’t normally cover UK old anime news, but this seemed like an event weighty enough to justify lifting that restriction. So here’re a news piece, an obituary, and a more informal fan tribute.

Podcasting

It’s been a quiet time for podcasts about older anime, but the Chinese Cartoon Podcast has convened to discuss the 1990 Bubblegum Crisis spin-off, A.D. Police Files.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — This last month has been busy for me; work, and I’ve been rather involved in local politics. I can only speak from my experience in SoCal (US), but I find it rewarding and I encourage everyone to be involved, get your hands dirty, because your voice matters. It also serves as a great networking opportunity! Other than that, I’m slowly working my way through Daimos, with less than ten episodes remaining now. I finished Path of Radiance, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m now slowly playing through Radiant Dawn and other games too…

Thaliarchus —Well, I’ve mostly been working. So why don’t I tell you about that? We’re just entering the part of the year when we decide who to admit to study here as an undergraduate next autumn. This involves a huge amount of work on our part, assessing candidates’ applications and the work they’ve submitted to us. I’m running the process for the first time this year, so I seem to spend my entire life at present answering email. But it’s a pretty interesting business, and a chance to deal with a bunch of very smart potential students, so I’m trying to look on the bright side of it!

It’s late in October, the perfect time of the year to think on terrifying things like ghouls, and the transience of access to older anime in a world of fixed-term streaming rights. We’re still here, though, and we’ve constructed another index for a fortnight’s blogging, podcasting and translation activity focused on older anime.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Cries in Newtype has a new translation of an interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino about Space Runaway Ideon; the interview was originally published shortly before the two Ideon films, A Contact and Be Invoked, were released, in 1982. It’s a dialogue which perhaps displays some interesting tension between the role of the magazine interview as promotional material for forthcoming movies, and Tomino’s tendency to be difficult. I love Tomino’s curt denial of the interviewer’s assumption that the Ideon’s full power had already been displayed.

Otaku, She Wrote explores the lengths to which characters go to pursue their theatrical passions in the 1984 Glass Mask adaptation.

Over at Animehead’s Retroworld, Craig’s posted a personal essay on his history with Fist of the North Star in its various forms, to mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of the original manga.

Catsuka’s October postings of collections of production drawings from various titles, many of them old, have continued: here’s one for Osamu Dezaki’s Takarajima, for instance.

Orphan have translated various things and, as usual, collectr has blog posts on them which are detailed enough to be worth noting here. There’re two instalments of the ‘Margaret’ series of single-episode OVAs adapting shoujo manga titles from Margaret Magazine in 1993: Kiss wa Me ni Shite and POPS; and the first and second ‘Ultra Nyan’ specials, which are cat-centred adventure stories partially inspired by, and punning on, the famous tokusatsu franchise.

Wrong Every Time’s episodic coverage of good magical shows continues with posts on Princess Tutuepisode 16 and Ojamajo Doremiepisodes 34 and 35.

ANN carries a piece from Mamoru Oshii scholar Brian Ruh marking the release of the new Korean live-action adaptation of Oshii’s Jin-Roh. Ruh goes into some detail on Jin-Roh‘s surrounding context in the extended, cross-media ‘Kerberos Saga’ material created by Oshii. I have a lot of respect for Mamoru Oshii’s animated films, but I’ve yet to have a go at his live action. Maybe some day! By the way, I recommend Brian Ruh’s book Stray Dog of Anime if you’re interested in learning about Oshii’s filmography: it’s a fantastic study of his progression as a filmmaker.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — This anime season’s treating me well. SSSS.Gridman‘s a exhilarating love letter to Masami Obari and the super robot anime genre. I can’t comment on how it compares to the original nineties tokusatsu shows, but I hear it’s faring well in that regard too. And then, of course, there’s the fifth installment of JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, which never fails to disappoint. I’ve also been playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, a game I had uncharacteristically dropped during my FE heyday—really loving it this time around.

Thaliarchus — Work, work, work! But I’ve been fitting in more Red Chamber—why must life be so hard on Daiyu?—and managed to read the second volume of Getter Robo Devolution (The Last 3 Minutes of the Universe, to give it its full, grandiose subtitle), which was fun stuff. It takes a sensible approach to integrating itself into a longstanding, classic property. I like the sleekness of its mechanical designs, too.

Here’s our latest index of attention to older anime. Materials! Materials, materials. There’s a little glut of posts about material things—both production artefacts and publications which accompanied anime—this time around, so we’ve put those together at the top of the post.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Let’s Anime has a new article on the phenomenon of the ‘roman album’ (the ‘roman’ is, I suspect, from the French roman, perhaps with input from the German Roman?), an impressive codex somewhere between a book and a magazine which functioned as a combined collectable for and guide to a particular anime title. These, and other texts like them, originated in the pre-tape era when something could only be revisited if it was rerun on television, but seemingly thrived through the eighties too. I actually ordered the Aura BattlerDunbine Roman Album recently. I’m excited to get it; they contain a plethora of information that’s hard to find elsewhere for some older anime. Curious to learn that the Roman Album catalog excluded various anime, seemingly at random.

Catsuka is having a month of posts archiving production art from various anime, many of them titles old enough to be of interest to us here. So, for example, there’s a gallery for the 1989 Peter Pan TV anime here and a gallery for Macross Plushere.

On Otaku USA’s site Dawn (of the Anime Nostalgia Podcast) has written a useful primer on just what Cardcaptor Sakura actually, you know, is.

The Great OAV Watch continues with short posts on Judge(1991), Leda(1985), Macross II (1992) and Space Fantasia 2001 Nights (1987). It’s always nice to see Leda get some attention, as I’m kind of fond of it. You could accuse it with some justice of being frothy, but it features some engaging and joyful action (there’re chase sequences which can do this), and if anything it makes its frothiness a virtue.

Wrong Every Time’s episodic coverage of Simoun has reached episode 16. It’s been nice to see more writing about this title. I hope B0bduh gets to finish this series of posts.

The folks of the Retro Mecha Podcast have a (text) article out on their personal top ten mecha, with many of the examples being from older titles. A top ten mecha list, eh? I don’t know if I’d include them in a top ten, but I like that one of the writers gives credit to Knights of Sidonia‘s mecha. I liked how fitting they were to the plot in their practicality and simple functionality. I may (or may not) be an outlier in this way of thinking, but personally my favorite mecha tend to be from anime or video games I’m particularly attached to, or if I like how the mecha are implemented in a piece of work. For instance, my favorite mecha is the titular Turn A from Turn A Gundam, and I’m also rather fond of the LFOs from Eureka Seven because of their combat manoeuvrability and how they’re incorporated into the setting.

Finally, I thought I’d note this short Twitter thread from Animated Golem on a short anime film produced by and for an animators’ union. It’s interesting to know that this exists at all!

Podcasting

Dynamite in the Brain convenes to discuss the very first Tenchi Muyou OVA.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — Work’s been busy and I’ve been in a bit of a rut in terms of motivating myself to consume anime. I did pick up Gridman and the latest season of JoJo’s, however. I finally completed Dragon Quest XI and Fire Emblem Echoes recently. Enjoyed both games a lot, especially the former, which is probably going to be my game of the year.

Thaliarchus — I’ve not picked anything up from the new anime season but at this time of year the local anime club reconvenes, so that’s meant starting some new shows—the recent Girls’ Last Tour, for instance, which I thought had an impressively reflective first episode. And I am continuing to read Dream of the Red Chamber (just imagine me putting this sentence at the end of every one of these sections in the coming months!).

We’re really late this time (see the final section), but we’re back again! And at least our delay means there’s plenty of new material about older anime gathered from the web and presented for your edification in the following post.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

In our last post we noted Orphan completing English subtitles for Hidamari no Ki (2000), which adapts a 1981–86 Tezuka manga. Now Bednorz has a useful post up explaining what the show is, what it’s like to watch, and some of its historical context.

Orphan themselves, meanwhile, have put outJapan–America Rice War (1993), a spin-off film from the anime adaptation of the very long-running manga Oishinbo. collectr declares it ‘one of the most boring anime movies I have ever seen’. So possibly not something to rush out and watch, then, but as usual collectr’s comments on this title and the food politics behind it are educational.

Orphan have also translated Kigyou Senshi Yamazaki: Long Distance Call (1997), an OVA adapting a manga about a cyborg salaryman consultant, and again collectr has a useful primer.

R042 has a new and enjoyable appreciation of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968) up.

At Land of Obscusion, George offers a very detailed rundown of the little-known shounen manga adaptation B’t X (1996), and its North American release.

AngryJellyfish has written upSouthern Cross, a 1984 giant robot show. I watched this a few years ago. I don’t think it’s a classic, but it has its strong points, including some rather fun armour and transforming mecha designs. Trivia collectors might be interested to hear that, as far as I know, this is one of only two 80s mecha TV shows with female lead pilots. Like Thaliarchus, I also watched Southern Cross a few years ago. That show’s really interesting to think about, mainly because of its all-female lead cast. It also has a rocking soundtrack, with some of its tracks paying homage to popular rock songs of the era.

Anime News Network has a retrospective piece on Gunbuster for its coming thirtieth anniversiary, by Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast. Gunbuster‘s a really special anime. It has historical significance, intense mecha battles and sequences, an odd final episode, and a cathartic ending — plus it’s easy to recommend due to its short length. It also actually makes an effort to appropriately implement time dilation and other concepts of physics and relativity. I have mixed thoughts on Diebuster but I agree with the author that it manages to evoke the same sense of emotion that Gunbuster had in its finale. Happy 30th! I hear they’re making a third instalment. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, because I just can’t see it being any good. Let the series rest, it ended perfectly.

EyebrowScar has a piece on the 1982 pilot for a futuristic Lupin III, Lupin VIII. I knew the outlines of this curious eddy in the history of Lupin III, but it’s always nice to have a refresher. If the nonexistence of Lupin VIII pains you, you might enjoy Galactic Cyclone Braiger—it’s not at the level of good Lupin, but it’s reasonably entertaining and has a famously fine opening.

Blue Blazes (2014)

ANN’s Answerman column has a usefully technical entry on colour correction in the transfers of older anime made for bluray. This piece touches on something I’ve been writing a draft about recently: the fact that amazing-looking older anime in HD looks both different and better than it ever could have when it was made, which means that in at least some cases we’re seeing things which are bright, sharp and stable in ways which couldn’t have been foreseen by their creators. Answerman also has a column on the costs and (perhaps more strikingly) the processes involved in remastering film-era anime from the physical film itself.

The latest relevant episodic posts at Wrong Every Time cover Ojamajo Doremiepisode 33, and Princess Tutu episodes 14 and 15.

Charles’s trip through Serial Experiments Lain at Beneath the Tangles continues with episodes 8 and 9.

Translation

Madou King Granzort episodes 4, 5, 6 (GANGO) I’m glad Madou King Granzort is receiving proper fansubs. I believe it has the same director as Wataru, which debuted in Super Robot Wars X earlier this year. My understanding is that both shows were popular in Japan and other East Asian countries, so it’s nice to see them getting some love.

Dash! Yonkuro episode 20 (Square; no post, but available in the usual trackers)

And an unusual curiosity, a music video made for one of the insert songs in Armored Trooper Votoms (Skaro)

The Anonymous Russian Rippers have, as usual, been making progress through various shows (Mechander Robo, Trider G7, Groizer X &c) and their work can be found in the right trackers.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — Busy, busy! I’ve barely even had time for myself. Most of my free time has been dedicated to Dragon Quest XI, which I believe I’m nearing the end to—at least its main story.

Thaliarchus — I had a big, big job interview this Friday, plus several other deadlines, and they’re big factors in this post’s delay. But I don’t want this section to just be two professionals complaining about their jobs, so I’ll note here that I’ve nearly finished rewatching the original Mobile Suit Gundam with a friend, and it’s been a very enjoyable experience. Externally, of course, we know that the show was truncated, but the effect when watching it at a rate of one episode a week is a surprisingly effective sense of gathering momentum, as the revelations about Newtypes and the new, bizarre enemies come thicker and faster.

We’re back! Slightly later than usual, but definitely back. Once again we’ve scoured the internet for new writing and podcasting about older anime, and for newly released translations, indexed here for your profit and delight.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Alicia Haddick gets into what makes the 1973 Aim for the Ace tick. I like this post because it gets a little beyond just a naming-of-parts approach to Dezaki and into the effects of some specific motifs and uses of colour in one specific show.

At Land of Obscusion, George gives us a run-down of Knights of the Zodiac, the ill-fated and messy first foray of Saint Seiya into the US. Ahhh, I’m reminded of the fact that the second half of the original TV series does not have an official release, which’s just so weird to me. When I watched Saint Seiya last year I had to do intense digging just to find acceptable fansubs. What a shame. I didn’t watch Knights of the Zodiac when it aired on television, but I’ve only ever heard embarrassing things about it. Like its opening sequence, which is not only incredibly unfitting (as the post points out), but also just feels like an AMV from a Geocities fan page. But I digress, it’s at least hilarious—an anime opening using ‘I Ran (So Far Away)’ as its song!

Wrong Every Time’s episodic progress through Princess Tutu continues with posts on episodes 13 and 14. B0bduh also has a piece on Ojamajo Doremi episode 32.

Humble Ace’s watch-through of SDF Macross concludes with writing about episodes 31–33 and episodes 34–36. Even as someone who has kind of a mixed opinion of the original Macross, it’s been really fun to read the thoughts of someone enjoying this show for the first time!

The Great OAV Watch continues with write-ups for Battle Royal High School (1987), Dog Soldier(1989), Oira Sukeban (1992), Dangaioh(1987) and Emblem Take 2 (1993). ‘Terrible’ is one way to describe Dangaioh’s dub! It’s comically bad to the point of disbelief, not unlike Garzey’s Wing‘s dub, to give a comparison. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to watch the dub, but a clip or two of Gil Berg’s scenes are worth a laugh. And it’s a shame that it’s known for its dub, really, because in most other ways Dangaioh is pretty neat. Perhaps it’s a little slight, but it’s a great-looking good time that doesn’t linger longer than necessary.

Charles’s anniversary series on Serial Experiments Lain at Beneath the Tangles has reached the seventh episode.

I didn’t come across any good blog posts about this, but Momoko Sakura, the creator—well, the pseudonym of the creator—of Chibi Maruko-chan died this fortnight. Maruko-chan was adapted into anime twice, with one series running 1990–92, and the second starting in 1995 and running to the present day. I’ve only seen a few episodes of the first series, but I was impressed by the show’s gently dry wit and its excellent use of narration. Apparently Sakura herself wrote the scripts for several hundred episodes across both adaptations, which is an unusual and impressive amount of artistic involvement. On Twitter, Yoshihiro Watanabe wrote an interesting little thread on how Maruko-chan fits into the broader history of family anime about family, and MaruChanSubs, which is working to make more of the anime available in English, posted this wordless tribute.

Podcasting

Dynamite in the Brain dedicates an episode to the death metal black comedy anime Detroit Metal City, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year.

The CCP discussVampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned (1980).

The Anime Nostalgia Podcast has a new episode all about the mighty Urusei Yatsura, both the 1978 manga and its various animated reflexes.

The British TV channel Film4 has just concluded a season of Studio Ghibli films, with accompanying podcasts: the latest is on Only Yesterday. It is, as always, interesting to hear what people who aren’t deep down the anime rabbit-hole make of these.

Madou King Granzort episodes 1, 2 and 3 (GANGO) It’s exciting to see a start on subtitles for this show!

And, as usual, Anonymous Russian Rippers have been making progress with disparate projects, which you can find in the usual places.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — Last week was the busiest I’d been all year, so I’m glad the nightmare is finally over. Work can be quite cumbersome… I’ve been playing the recently released Dragon Quest XI, which I’m in love with at the moment. I’m a big Dragon Quest fan and this was my most anticipated game of the year. So far it is living up to my expectations.

In other news, after many years of searching, I finally won auctions to Turn A Gundam storyboards for three different episodes. I’m really excited to analyze and share them once they come in. Stay tuned!

Thaliarchus — This post’s lateness is what happens when we both have heavy weeks at work in the same week! But it’s here, and all’s well that ends well. I’ve been taking a leaf out of Feez’s book and watching a few episodes of Daimos. I also sampled the first episode of The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye, which, to be honest, didn’t really feel like my kind of thing. Bookwise, I’ve been chewing slowly through David Hawkes’s English translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber, which is remarkably absorbing, though I’m only in the second volume of five right now so it’s still early days, I suppose!

One side-effect of my being stuck at work for long days is that work leaking out (counter)productively on the web: I’ve compiled a short guide to getting into Arthuriana in English for the curious and the Fatestruck, and I’ve also been keeping a running thread of passing observations on Middle English, which shows you some of the things that cross my desk.

It feels like we have more material than usual for this fortnight’s round-up, though perhaps we’re just getting better at finding things! That would certainly be nice. Anyway, here it is: attention to older anime from the last two weeks, indexed and annotated.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

One the Ones has a huge and hugely engrossing appreciation of the career of filmmaker Toshio Hirata (1938–2014) to mark what would have been Hirata’s eightieth birthday. Hirata might not be a household name among anime fans but this is really worth a read (perhaps in several chunks, if you’re pressed for time!). It’ll probably make you want to check out at least some of his work.

A couple of months back Comic Natalie ran an interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino to mark the 4K releases of Char’s Counterattack and Gundam F91, and Nekketsu Nikki has a translation. There’s something just sad about Tomino wholly admitting that he’s unmotivated and only works on anime because it’s his job. I do wonder which anime are the ones he genuinely wanted to make… also, this is the first I’m reading that he purposefully rushed through things in G-Reco because he figured he’d improve on it in the movies. I hope those movies actually see the light of day. As usual when Tomino’s interviewed, this is an odd, wide-ranging and at times blunt conversation! But I like the bluntness: whatever he’s saying, Tomino never lapses into PR lines and won’t let readers idolise him. The occasion of the interview intrigues me too. I’m kind of sceptical about the use of 4K for anime, myself. It’s cool that anime shot on film can be transferred into true 4K, but I’m not sure we gain much: the details of brushstrokes, dust &c visible in ‘normal’ HD already are sufficient for me. But I’m no video expert!

R042 continues his line of very strong blog post titles with this piece on the original Pretty Cure. (That very first series is one of my favourite anime, as it happens.)

And here on a new blog is a thoughtful response to Dragonball GT: what’s it doing, and what makes it feel so strange? (Surprisingly little seems to get written about Dragonball, given its immense popularity. Or maybe we’re looking in the wrong places? Also, this reminds me of reports I’ve heard of an area in Portugal where GT is the most popular Dragonball title.)I haven’t read a GT retrospective in ages, so this was fun to take in. It’s true that much of the show doesn’t follow standard shounen anime structure, and the earlier bits definitely are reminiscent of an 80s or 90s sci-fi adventure anime. Maybe that’s why the first arc was my favorite.

On All the Anime’s company blog Motoko Tamamuro reviews Pencil War Chronicles: The Studio Ghibli Nobody Knew, by Hitomi Tateno (and not—yet, at least—translated into English). Tateno was a long-serving animation checker and manager at Ghibli, and in Tamamuro’s account the book offers some fascinating fragments of information but is ultimately a ‘soft-pedalled’ report from someone who could probably reveal more in other circumstances.

Sakugablog’s latest post is a history of Kyoto Animation, kicking off in the early eighties and containing a bunch of details I didn’t know about the outfit’s (pre-)history as a cel painting shop and then an outsourcing studio. It’s interesting to picture early KA as a kind of latter-day Anime R, as Anime R was in its 1980s glory days: an organisation based away from Tokyo and trusted to excel on outsourced work.

Ogiue Maniax has not one but two whole posts arising from Shoji Kawamori’s appearances at this year’s Otakon. One is an interview ranging over, among other things, Kawamori’s design credits and Studio Satelight’s hiring of foreign talent. The other is an report of Kawamori’s ‘history of Macross’ panel.

sdshamshel’s also written a brief consideration of The Big O as a show partly tackling AI and artificial emotion.

Over at The Land of Obscusion, George gives us a detailed write-up for Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary, a 2014 3DCG ‘complete re-imagining’ of Saint Seiya. I’ve heard that despite the CG, this movie is actually worth watching. I have yet to watch any of the feature films though…

Anime News Network put out something unusual: a review of Aura Battler Dunbine from someone (James Beckett) who’s not already a confirmed ancient mech-head. I do find it useful to remind myself how these shows can seem to people who aren’t broken.

We were sorry to hear recently of the death of the animator Kunihiro Abe at the relatively young age of 50. Abe had a significant career and his list of credits includes contributions on Utena and the Zeta Gundam films. Kraker2k wrote a Twitter thread collating some interesting moments from Abe’s work, plus anecdotes and tributes from his peers. RIP.

Finally, I enjoyed this Twitter thread from @Goge6_ on Licca-chan to Yamaneko Hoshi no Tabi, a 1997 film which (it would seem) has some striking direction and animation. The various ‘Licca-chan’ anime all languish in obscurity and are all, as I understand it, ultimately toy-selling titles. Just lately they seem to’ve gotten a bit of attention in some of the corners of anime Twitter which specialise in oddities, and that attention has turned up some impressive bits of craft.

Podcasting

Anime of Yesteryear examine to some kind of live-action film and, much more importantly, Mighty Orbots (1984).

Dynamite in the Brain’s unacronymable Famous Anime Podcast segment covers Tokyo Movie Shinsha’s 1981–83 output, and DitB have also put out their second and concluding episode on the Dirty Pair TV show.

AniFem’s podcast series on Dennou Coil concludes with instalments for episodes 14–20 and episodes 21–26. Always good to see Dennou Coil‘s beautiful / creepy / intermittently hilarious augmented reality tale get some attention.

PodCastle in the Sky’s team pair the Mobile Suit Gundam compilation film trilogy with the first Star Wars.

Translating

Squaresubs have Yume no Crayon Oukoku episode 30 out in the usual places (but no associated blog post)

Anonymous Russian Rippers have been making their usual progress through various projects, mostly released on private trackers—see their Twitter.

Also noteworthy: GANGO have acquiredBosco Adventure in an HD form and will be re-releasing the episodes they’ve covered already before moving on.

What we’ve been up to

Thaliarchus — I’ve been pretty absorbed by Trails in the Sky, a detail-rich JRPG. I don’t play games all that much, but when I do I sometimes become quite dedicated! Still, I’ve finished watching Wixoss (would not particularly recommend), and my friend and I are almost exactly halfway through Cardcaptor Sakura (you don’t need me to recommend that to you). Oh, yes, and, word to the wise, the currently airing show Sirius the Jaeger has some really, really well-conceived action, though it’s kind of aggressively ‘Netflix stupid’ in other ways. If you like fight scenes, maybe go look clips up once it’s over.

Feez — I’m halfway through Daimos now. It’s fun! The show’s a lot more dynamic and dramatic than I could have ever initially predicted. I’d heard Daimos was really good, but I had pegged it as a slightly better Voltes, at best. It’s far exceeded that in my opinion. I think it does a good job at getting the viewer attached to the characters, including the many supporting characters. And there are so many assholes in this show—I think that helps in making you want to root for the good guys.

We’re back! Somehow, it is almost halfway through August! Time marches onward, and we’re here as usual to raise a middle finger in Time’s wizened and terrifying face via another index of recent attention to older anime.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Here’s a neat write-up for Kyouryuu Tankentai Born Free (1976)! This show’s a good example of something which might not be most fans’ cup of tea, but which nevertheless has some curiosity value. It follows a team of animal relocation experts who work to transport and preserve dinosaurs(!) who have re-emerged in modern times(!). So sort of like a gentler Getter Robo, then. Part of its interest lies in its construction: it uses stop-motion for dinosaurs, machines and vehicles, but hand-drawn 2D animation for its human characters. This is comparable to a show using 3DCG, which like stop-motion is a different and more predictable craft under the overall umbrella of ‘animation’, for monsters, vehicles and environments. It’s one layer of separation greater than a distinction maintained within the same craft, as when the the mushi in Mushishi are consistently animated on the ones. This is a very interesting clash of visual styles that I didn’t know existed in anime (or at least, hadn’t seen an actual example of). It feels like something you’d see in an old Western production.

Sakugablog has put out a history of the arrival of ‘digital 2D animation’ in mainstream anime, with particular reference to Birdy the Mighty: Decode and Noein. (That is, as I understand it, strictly speaking any animation which is hand-drawn as a set of digital images using a digital surface, a tablet, rather than being hand-drawn on paper and then scanned to create digital images. More broadly, however, as the post explains, the distinction often maps onto differences in training and career path, since digital 2D animators have tended to have non-traditional, web-driven routes into the commercial anime industry.) It’s an interesting story of craft differences but also continuities, and it ends with what was once perceived as just one school of animation flowering into a range of approaches which happen to be using the same drawing method.

At Zimmerit, Sean has a piece on one eddy in the marketing of robot model kits in the early 80s, in this case kits based on the robots from Dorvack (1983). This is an interesting window on the substrate of commercial activity which enabled the existence of a lot of the sf adventure anime of the time, and on the kinds of ephemeral artwork involved. Being distant in time (and, in my case at least, space too!) it’s easy to forget about things like this when all we have that’s readily accessible are the anime titles themselves, sans their surrounding inventory of kits, pamphlets, posters &c (I almost used the word ‘epitext’ in this paragraph, but then I remembered that I’m not at work right now). There’s a prominent gunpla and model kit shop here that often stocks older kits from the eighties and nineties. Next time I’m there I’ll have to keep my eye out on Dorvack kits!

R042 has been watching Gankutsuou and offers a thoughtful discussion of the show’s lateral, tricksy view of several of the genres it might be sorted into by viewers (space opera, the Gothic). This is also the best anime blog post title I’ve seen all week.

Humble Ace’s blog-through of the original SDF Macross has reached episodes 25–27, while at Beneath the Tangles Charles’s anniversary trip (that seems like the right noun) through Lain progresses to episodes 2and 3.

Podcasting

Dynamite in the Brain concludes its ‘MANV Feud’, travelling through all of Manga Video’s UK VHS releases and running right up to 2001. I’d forgotten how late VHS persisted, but of course tapes and players were common well into the 2000s! I had no TV at home and my head stuck in books well into the middle of the decade…

Taiiku Podcast has an episode discussing a modern anime which falls outside our purview here, and the 1980 Ashita no Joe film, which is very much relevant to our indexing work!

Translations

What we’ve been up to

Feez — I’m really enjoying Daimos. I was expecting it to be slightly more engaging than Voltes, but it’s much more dynamic and dramatic than I was prepared for. It does an excellent job setting up the romantic drama between Kazuya and Erika, and the many side-characters are actually relevant and contribute to the plot. I’m excited to see where it goes! I would describe it as a Romeo & Juliet-inspired super robot show.

Other than that, I’ve been playing way too many video games for my own good while also balancing a dutifully busy work life…

Thaliarchus — I’ve been settling into my new digs, where the internet is surprisingly good—not the normal rented accommodation experience!

I’ve very nearly finished watching Daitarn 3 (see thread!) which has continued to be messy, intermittently irritating, and delightfully funny. At the time of writing I only have the final episode left, and I’m interested to see how it ends: it has stayed almost entirely light-hearted up to this point. In order to have something on my docket which doesn’t require thought or comment, I’ve also been watching Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. Despite being an anime fan for a few years now, I’ve so far escaped (if that’s the right word) the various Bee Train shows about shooting people, so this has been educational.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Nanto has a new post up about Big X (1964). Okay, it’s actually the release of some translations, but the internet is not exactly overrun with discussions of this show so we’re putting it in this section! One reason Big X is notable is that it’s a partially lost anime: like some live-action television of its era, a substantial number of episodes are not known to survive in any storage medium.

Sticking with translation release posts which are also informative for a moment, Collectr’s latest write-up discusses Techno Police 21C(which I’m embarrassed to say I’d not heard of… it has a Wikipedia page with a strange tone and almost no references).

Land of Obscusion examinesNekojiru Gekijou Jirujiru Original (1999), which is Cat Soup‘s less well-known but similarly strange predecessor.

The latest post at Let’s Anime explores two 1970s Matsumoto titles, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999, both of which are now more easily and legally accessible in North America. This is a good introduction to both shows if you’re not familiar with them, and the illustrations include photos of some interesting artefacts, such as ancient quasi-official subtitles and a bilingual Harlock LP gloss.

Humble Ace has new watch reports on the original Macross, episodes 19–21 and 22–24. I like Humble Ace’s blogging style, where they summarize the episode(s) by bullet-points and follow-up with thoughts and analysis.

Beneath the Tangles has started a series of rewatch posts for Serial Experiments Lain, joining the anniversary activity discussed in our last post.

Finally, Cecilia D’Anastasio, a writer at the k-site, recounts her search for a semi-mythical US version of Sailor Moon. What I found most striking in this was the broader idea about attempts to sell anime or anime-adjacent things in the US ‘too early’.

Podcasting

All Units, which is reviewing pairs of (primarily live-action) thrillers, has an episode on Golgo 13: The Professional paired with Elephant (1989). This is an interesting chance to hear an audio essay on an older anime from sort of outside current anime fandom, with other, much more serious, material for comparison. (It will kind of spoil parts of The Professional, if you’re concerned about that—for what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s really a film many people watch for the story!)

Oldtaku no Radio put in ninety minutes discussing the 1987 anthology Robot Carnival. (A late entry here—we missed this last time round! Sorry!)

Anonymous Russian Rippers have continued to put out episodes of all kinds of obscurities, including Godam, Ougon Bat, Daimos, Jeeg &c &c, so check their work out if that sounds interesting.

And, as above, Skaro have episodes of Big X and Orphan have put out subtitles for Techno Police 21C.

What we’ve been up to

Feez — I’ve begun watching Toushou Daimos, which’s one of the last anime Tadao Nagahama was involved in before his untimely death. I’ve heard very good things about Daimos, so I’ve always been curious. I’m enjoying it a lot so far! It’s reminiscent of its predecessor, Voltes V, yet incorporates aspects of a Romeo & Juliet-inspired story, and so far it’s convincing. Unfortunately only eleven episodes are subbed..… and that is a big shame.

Other than that, my life has been slowly settling down again. And now I’m playing too many video games for my own good.

Thaliarchus — I’ve been moving house! During a heatwave, in a country where domestic air-conditioning is barely known and buildings are not built for heat. So, as you can imagine, that’s been a lovely experience. I’m about halfway through the blurays of Noein, which so far largely deserves its positive reputation. It has a fine halfway-point episode which cleverly weaves in a great fight scene.

Armoured Trooper Votoms is going to be legally available in the UK for (I think) the first time, so I put out a quick thread on its virtues, influences &c, including various details from the interview with the director, Ryosuke Takahashi, from the old CPM DVDs. Also on Twitter, @sasuraiger’s trying to assemble a group-watch of Votoms, incorporating Hidive’s group chat function, if you fancy (re)watching this show in company.